Paper Details

On the basis data from Census for 2011, Socio Economic and Caste Census for 2011, NSS 68th round survey for 2011-12 on employment and unemployment, and National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) for 2015-16 are used to analyze level of development in rural Madya Pradesh with respect to India as a whole and social group disparities in the level of development. Although, due to constitutional provisions and interventions by government in favour of Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes, their level of development (on various development indicators such as education, health and economic) has improved in the post-independence period. However, due to long historical deprivation and because of widespread discrimination and prejudice against them in contemporary India, and ineffective government interventions, wide social group disparities between them (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) and their non-SC/ST counterparts continue to exist in India as a whole as well as in Madhya Pradesh. The Backward character of Madhya Pradesh was reflected in terms of the lower level of development on different indicators of development when compared with the level of development for India as a whole. Data show significant social group disparities in developmental outcomes in the area of education, health, and economic conditions. On most of the parameters analyzed in the paper, the level of disparities in rural Madhya Pradesh is found to be worse than the level of disparities in rural India.